New York City&#8230;Where It All Began

New York City is where the modern recording industry began.Forty years after Thomas Edison had perfected the cylindrical recordingmachine in his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratories, most of the majorrecord labels had established their own recording studios in Manhattan.At a time when the recording industry was evolving from its formerposition as a subset of radio, the Decca, Columbia and RCA studiosoffered the large, ambient recording spaces that came to define the wayrecords would sound for decades to come.

It was in New York that the trend toward individually owned studiosfirst emerged, as well, with facilities like A&R Recording and NolaSound Studios appearing in the late 1950s and ’60s. In more recenttimes, the New York recording scene was graced with such classicfacilities as Media Sound, Skyline Studios, the Record Plant and thePower Station.

Today, New York serves the entire entertainment industry. Recordlabels have their headquarters here, as do talent and booking agenciesand music publishers. Wall Street investment firms now underwrite muchof the entertainment industry and, even as the music industryconsolidates, it does so without diminishing its presence in NewYork.

Despite challenges from other major metropolitan areas, New Yorkretains its position as the capital of the broadcast industry. SiriusSatellite Radio has chosen Manhattan as the site of its massive newsatellite-based coast-to-coast digital operations, scheduled tocommence later this year. And though the days of the "Big Three"broadcasting networks are a fading memory, ABC, CBS and NBC still haveflagship radio and television stations based in New York. Live Webcastconcerts have been regularly beamed from New York studios for severalyears now, starting with David Bowie's ground-breaking effort in 1998at Philip Glass' downtown studio, and many New York studios have sinceintegrated a range of "new media" capabilities.

The quantity and quality of film production work in New York hassteadily increased throughout the last decade, too, and the city'sexpanding post-production infrastructure now allows producers to keepprojects in town from start to finish. Once the political wrangling isover, it seems likely that the former Brooklyn Navy Yard will becomehome to a massive new film, video and audio complex. All this andworld-class restaurants, too.

Though there is not yet a clear indication as to which of many newlyevolving technologies will drive the entertainment industry in the NewMedia Age, there will always be a need for a wide range ofaudio-related services. Times change, but the need for qualitydoesn't.